Art, Its Ephemeral Nature

“We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.”—John Lennon (1940-1980)

We water each other with our love. We flower. We grow.

This bit of whimsical art is what I love about Greenwich Village. The creative spirit that has attracted artists to The Village since the 1850s still thrives. Some of the Village’s art is quite ephemeral. Catch it while you can!

I found this on the side of a 1920s gas station hut at the corner of Commerce Street and Seventh Avenue South. The gas station closed many years ago; the little hut remains. A one-story, glass building now occupies the space where the gas pumps once stood.

In early May colored-paper silhouettes of a man and a woman were pasted up on the side of the hut. They are watering each other’s head. As a result flowers grow from each. Already their heads and faces and the flowers had been peeled away. By early June though—less than a month had passed—the couple’s nude bodies had been stripped away. Little more than an outline of where they had been remains.

The art work has the surrealist quality worthy of Renée Magritte, though not as dark as the Belgian’s opus. I like its humor and symbolism. Lennon’s quote fits it well. The chance nature of finding it and ephemeral nature of the work attracted me to it.

This bit of artistic whimsy, now sadly gone, was found along the route of our Greenwich Village Walking Tour. Who knows what we will come across next? Take the Tour; Know More!